Safe and Sound
by Mupps
Summary: A fight with Sweden, Iceland freaking out, everything seems normal...except for Denmark. A broken promise unravels the fight he's been fighting against himself all the time. And he's not the ony one with problems: Sweden hates his shyness and starts losing his hopes, thinking about whether he should just give up on Finland. DenNor, SuFin and HongIce
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! I've written fanfiction for a long time now and my sister made me make this account. Only two people have ever read my fanfictions and I'm kind of scared to upload them here. First of all, I want to say that I'm German, so sometimes my spelling/grammar/etc. could be wrong and I apologize for that. It could also happen that the characters aren't really portrayed like they are in Hetalia because it's kind of difficult for me. If they act too unlikely, please let me know it. This story is based off the song 'Safe and Sound' by Taylor Swift (as the name implies) and I hope you enjoy it!**

"Den! Open the fucking door" Norway hammered against the locked door of the bathroom. He obviously needed more coffee. He could hear Sweden bumping into something, possibly a table, downstairs.

"Sverige's glasses are in there. You know he can't make out anything without them and if any furniture breaks apart, we will have to repair it again and sure as hell he won't help."

Finally he could hear the sound of a key unlocking the door and Denmark looked out. He didn't have his usual hairstyle where he styled the hair up with tons of gel and his blonde strands of hair where longer than Norway had expected.

"You spent in there about two hours and you didn't even finish?"

The tall man looked away. "I had other stuff to do." He held out Sweden's glasses but Norway refused to take them.

It took Denmark a while to understand. "I can't give them to him. Don't you remember what happened yesterday?"

Norway frowned. "How should I? I was in Oslo yesterday and I returned at like five a.m. Now let me through already."

Denmark let out an exhausted sigh. He seemed to have dark shadows under his eyes but maybe it was just Norway's imagination. "We had a fight, Sverige and me. Nothing serious, but I doubt that he wants to see my face."

"Are you serious? Could you for once try not to pick fights with everyone all the time?"

Denmark looked like he wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Iceland's pet bird Mr. Puffin flying up the stairs and hiding somewhere near the two nations. They could hear gunshots as well as angry shouting in Finnish from downstairs.

"Someone should tame Fin" Norway said after a while. He had figured out that Mr. Puffin had annoyed Finland, already in a bad mood because he didn't get enough sleep, and he took one of his rifles and started the bird hunt.

"Isn't that normally Sverige's job? He should be down there, too, shouldn't he?" he suddenly realized.

Denmark shrugged. "Can't be helped. I guess we should go take a look ourselves." With that he stepped out of the door frame.

Norway let out a sigh. "Fine. But after that, the bathroom's mine."

"I'm sorry" Finland said a bit embarrassed. He finally got to his usual self again. "But I hardly slept last night. And that bird is just so loud…"

Norway just silently nodded. It was true that Mr. Puffin could be a pain and it was better not to talk to Finland before at least two cups of coffee.

"Why don't you take a nap then?" Denmark proposed. "We'll handle things over here."

Finland sighed. "I can't. I have a meeting with Estonia today and he's been looking forward to it the whole week.

"But speaking of Puffin, where exactly is Icey?" Denmark asked after a while.

Finland looked up. "You're right. He should be up by now."

The three went silent for a while. Then, Norway stood up and left the room.

"Nor?" Denmark started following him. "Where are you going?"

Norway didn't turn around. "What do you think? I want to know what Ice is doing."

Finland looked at them with unsureness. "Maybe he wants some privacy…Are you sure you should just barge in there?"

"It's fine; I'm his big brother after all. And besides, don't you think it's weird that he didn't annoy us with his gross liveliness this morning?"

Iceland was the only Nordic who actually was a morning person, much to Norway's disapproval.

The rooms of the Nordics were arranged in the same distances as their actual countries were. This way Iceland's room was the most far away one in the whole house. Still, it only took them about five minutes to get there.

Norway wanted to open the door, but Finland held him back. "Don't you think we should at least knock?"

He looked at him for a while with his dull purplish eyes, then he shrugged and busted the door open.

Someone looked at him and Denmark could hear Norway mumbling "Asia?" as he stared at the young man with dark brown hair in clothes that looked quite Asian. Behind the man he could see Norway's little brother Iceland dying of embarrassment.

"Ice?" Norway asked after a while and the blush on Iceland's face intensified. "Who is this?"

"Um, it's Hong Kong…he said he wanted to get a better relationship with me, so I invited him."

Finland could see that Norway completely disliked the fact that Iceland was alone with another nation, but he remained silent.

"Hvor lenge skal du vaere her?" He finally asked and Hong Kong looked at him a bit confused. Finland wasn't sure whether Norway was aware that he slipped into his native language.

An awkward silence came until Iceland tried to translate: "I guess he wants to know how long you will stay…" He knew quite a bit Norwegian but was far away from being fluent in it.

Hong Kong's eyes reminded Finland of Norway's. They had the same kind of dullness, even though Hong Kong's deemed to have more life in them.

"Don't know. As long as it's gonna take," he answered in kind of monotone voice. "Is that okay?"

You could see how Norway liked the Asian boy less and less with every second.

Denmark tried to save the situation by starting a conversation with Hong Kong, not noticing that he had started talking Danish. Of course there were similarities between Norwegian and Danish, but Denmark talked so much and so fast that it was far beyond Iceland's skills as a translator.

Finally, Denmark stopped and there was the awkward silence again, a confused Hong Kong and a blushing Iceland, clearly embarrassed because of the behavior of the two other Nordics.

Then he exploded. It was a storm, a storm in Icelandic, full of how much he hated Norway and Denmark, the whole family and why they had to embarrass him like that. Nobody knew exactly what he said, but they just had to listen to the tone of his voice to know that he was disappointed and once again wished not to be part of the Nordics. He stood up and turned to Hong Kong. "Let's go somewhere else," he explained and Hong Kong followed him, past the three Nordics, leaving them in shock.

 **Yay, first chapter \^-^/ I'm learning Norwegian and this is one of the few things I know to say. Maybe there will be a bit more of it in the future, but I'll put a translation either at the end or in the story itself when I want one of the characters to read it. I hope this was okay and that you had fun reading it. I'm planning to make the second chapter centered around Sweden and Finland.**


	2. Chapter 2

**First of all, thanks to all the people who followed or added my story to their favorites. And of course thanks for the awesome review I got . It seriously made my day. We are on vacation for two weeks but I still have theatre class on the weekends. I'll try to update nevertheless.**

Sweden watched Finland getting ready for his meeting with Estonia.

"What're you g'nna do?" he asked and Finland turned to him with a smile. He tried his best to hide his accent, but never managed to talk completely normal.

"Oh, we don't know yet. Nothing special. We just wanted to spend some time together again once in a while."

The silent nation nodded. Then he stared at Finland for a while. It took him a few minutes to notice it, then he met his gaze uncomfortably. "Do you need something, Su-san?"

Sweden remained silent. It happened all the time and he couldn't do anything against it. In his mind, he had the words ready, just his mouth wouldn't cooperate. 'I want to spend more time with you, too.' Why was it so difficult to say his thoughts out loud? It was especially bad when he was around Finland. It wasn't the first time that Sweden cursed his own shyness.

A few seconds they just looked at each other without saying anything, then he started to pack his stuff again. "Anyway, I should get going." Already in the door frame, he looked back again. "See you later." Then he was gone. Sweden didn't reply.

Maybe it was bad getting his hopes up. Maybe it had been hopeless from the start. He never dared to say what he thought, let alone what he felt. Running away from Denmark with him had been fun. He knew that Finland thought he was creepy, but he still wanted to get closer to him.

Sometimes Sweden wondered if he even belonged to the Nordics. Geographically, it was clear as day that they belonged together, but what about their personalities? Was it really possible for them to live together as a family? He wasn't able to speak properly any longer because of Denmark and he had been hit by one of Norway's arrows that he now had to wear glasses. He couldn't make conversation and had a creepy atmosphere around him. He had tried to kill Denmark more than just once.

"What do they even think?!" Sweden looked up as Iceland and a brunette boy came downstairs. Norway's little brother looked completely furious but the Asian boy that was with him didn't seem to mind. He had a few similarities to China, so maybe it was Hong Kong, but Sweden wasn't sure.

Iceland stopped when he crossed way with Sweden. Again, they just looked at each other for a while until Sweden asked: "What's wrong?"

Iceland looked away. "Just the usual thing. Dan and Nore are being complete assholes and embarrassing."

It was obvious that it had something to do with the Asian boy that was with him.

"Relax, it wasn't that horrible," said the brunette after a while to Iceland and he shook his head. "It was. Sorry, Hong Kong" So it really was China's brother. What he was doing in the house of the Nordics was a mystery to Sweden, though.

Iceland looked at Sweden again and added. "And what about you? You look down, too."

Sweden thought about he should tell him about his doubts. It already helped just spending time with the others to forget about the whole thing, but Iceland was still too young. He didn't want to drag him into this and doubted that he would understand anyways.

"It's nothing."

Still, Iceland didn't avert his gaze. "Are you sure?"

Sweden nodded. "I'm okay. Trust me."

It was better this way.

"Finland? Is something wrong?" Estonia's voice brought Finland back to reality, back to the streets of Tallinn. The Baltic nation had offered him to show him some of the sights in his capital and the Nordic had been happy to leave his own country for once.

"Ah? Oh, I'm sorry, Estonia. I was just lost in thought."

"Yeah, I've noticed" Estonia adjusted his glasses and gazed at him questionably. "Are you coming?"

Finally Finland got out of his trance and started hurrying after him. "I'm sorry…there was just a lot happening at my house this morning."

"You sure have it rough. I couldn't imagine living together with Norway or Sweden," Estonia admitted with a slight shiver.

Finland looked gave him a questioning look. "Really? Su-san and Nor are alright, I guess Denmark and Ice are the bigger problem."

"Don't you think that Norway is pretty mysterious? I actually think that he's a bit creepy. And Sweden…I worked under him for some time."

"How was it?" Finland asked.

The Baltic nation shivered again. "I had a feeling that he looked down on me and sometimes even that he wanted to kill me."

The Nordic smiled a bit uncomfortably. "True, Su-san can be…frightening but I doubt he wants to kill you. I spent a lot of time with him already. Remember that one time when we ran away from Denmark. He actually took good care of me."

"That may have been the case with you, but I doubt he treats everyone like this."

Finland stopped walking. "What do you mean?" he asked confusedly.

Estonia, who had also stopped walking through the street, turned around. "You just mentioned the time when you ran away from Denmark with him, didn't you? We met at that time and Sweden introduced you to me as 'his wife'. I don't think he does that with everyone he meets."

Finland could feel a slight blush lightening his face. "That was just…that was a different situation…I guess. I…I don't know."

"This is just how I see it, and I might be wrong, but I think that you are more important to Sweden than you admit."

 **I'm sorry if this chapter was short, but I have sort of a writer's block. Thanks to my sister who always gives me ideas by the way ^-^**

 **About the thing with Hong Kong: I didn't know how he was related to China, but he should be since he's actually part of China. Sorry if that's wrong.**

 **The whole story is supposed to take place before Sweden and Finland adopt (?) Sealand so he probably won't appear until the very end. As always, I'm sorry if there were mistakes in here and I'd be really happy if you would leave a review and tell me what to improve or what was already good.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Once again, thanks to all the people that followed, reviewed or added my story to their favorites. My holidays are about to end, so I won't get to update as much as now, but I'll try. The rest of the Awesome Trio will appear in this chapter and I'll try to portray them as best as I can.**

Denmark slipped through the doors of America's house. He had always been stunned by how huge it was and this time was no exception. And America had his own house, while he had to share one with the other Nordics.

America looked up with a big smile on his face, next to him the ex-nation of Prussia, smirking.

"Dude, finally!" America said. "We were worried if you would ever show up."

Prussia snickered. "He wouldn't have dared to skip a meeting with the awesome me!" His pet bird Gilbird flew around his head restlessly, but the albino didn't seem to mind.

The Nordic nation took a seat next to America and reached for Prussia's beer.

"Get your own! This one's mine!" Prussia shouted, wrapping his arms around the jar protectively.

Denmark didn't move; he just stared into Prussia's red eyes. "I want it. _You_ get me one."

It didn't last long though, as the German stood up with a silent "Well, isn't someone grumpy today" and started pouring beer in a new jar. Denmark was quite proud of himself. He slowly learned how to do the intimidating gaze Sweden often looked at people with. He took the jar with a grin and took a sip.

America watched the two nations as if he wasn't sure what that was all about, but soon had his signature hero smile on his face again. "Whatever, you know my birthday is coming up soon, right?"

"Yeah, it's in about a month, right?" Prussia asked and America nodded cheerfully.

"I want you to help me organize a party. Really, a gigantic one. I want to invite everyone! So I need as much help as I can get. And they need to be stunned! It's gonnna be the biggest, best party you've ever been to, okay?"

Prussia obviously seemed to like the idea. "That's gonna be awesome! You can count on me!" The albino seemed to be thinking about something, then he turned around to America again. "So, where is the party going to be?"

America rubbed his temples a bit frustrated. "I don't know yet. Washington would be awesome since it's my capital and all…but I doubt we'll find a good spot on that day."

The ex-nation frowned. "That sucks…we still have to find a location?"

"No, no, I'll take care of that. It's my place after all; I know all the sights and good spots!"

He turned to Denmark. "Dude, is something wrong? You've been awfully quiet this whole time."

He and Prussia could hear him mumble "capital" under his breath before he looked up quickly.

"What's with the capital?" America asked. "Did something happen in Copenhagen?"

Denmark smiled. "What? Oh, no, it's nothing. Don't worry about it. What were we talking about again?"

He looked into America's slightly shocked blue eyes. "Dude, listen to me when I'm talking."

Still, America gladly repeated his plan to the Nordic once more.

Denmark always went home together with Prussia after their meetings with America, since they had about the same way. Normally they would talk but this time, there was an awkward silence between the two men.

The Nordic just looked down on his coat. He wasn't wearing his uniform since it hadn't been a business meeting – otherwise Prussia would have arrived along with Germany – but he still liked the black texture of the uniform's coat, that's why he sometimes just separated it from the rest and wore it like a normal piece of clothing. Its color got along well with how he felt at the moment.

Suddenly he felt that Prussia was watching him and eventually his blue eyes met Prussia's red ones.

"What are you hiding?" The ex-nation asked. "Come on, spit it out."

Denmark thought about it for a while. How could he explain it? And how had Prussia been able to see through his façade anyways? Normally everyone took his smile for being real and stopped asking questions. He sat a bit uncomfortably in his seat on the plane, until he slowly asked: "Have you ever felt…forgotten?"

Prussia looked at him with a face that said 'Really?' He looked out of his window for a while, then he answered: "Seriously? I'm Prussia, what do you expect? I feel forgotten all the time. I'm not a real nation anymore, why would anyone remember my name?" He motioned to the other passengers on board. "Try asking them about me. Where I was, _what_ I even was. I bet not even half of them will be able to answer. Sometimes I have the feeling I'm turning invisible…" He let out a deep sigh. "Why do you ask?"

Denmark felt like slapping himself. Why did he ask Prussia that? He knew that he was struggling with the fact that only few people knew about him. He always had to deal with the feeling of being forgotten and now he just had to rub it in again. Prussia's problem was way bigger than his, why bother him?

"Just wondering."

 **Ok, I have no clue how July 4** **th** **works in America and if I portrayed it wrong, I apologize for that.**

 **The thing with Prussia is my own experience. Before Hetalia, I always heard about this 'Preußen' in presentations in history class and such and always caught myself wondering what that even was. When I finally asked my parents they forgot to tell me that it wasn't a nation anymore, so it took another long time before I figured that out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry that the new chapter took so long but I was on a class trip… and… yeah. There will be one word in Norwegian but I´ll put the translation at the end. Also, for some reason the things I changed in my chapters with editing didn´t work… Does anyone know why or can help me? I would appreciate it.**

Another boring day…Norway looked down the empty hallway. Now that he had rested and finished all his tasks for today, he didn't know what to do for the rest of the day. Most of the other Nordics spent time with someone else, so Norway was kind of left alone in their house.

He reached for a little fairy floating in front of him, for her transparent wings. He had never seen her around before, even though she had a lot of similarities with other fairies, like the tiny dress that looked like it was made out of flower petals or the braided hair over one shoulder so that it wouldn't get in the way when she needed her wings.

He felt pain and hot blood dripping down his finger as the fairy bit the hand reaching towards her and escaped towards the ceiling. It wasn't badly wounded of course but Norway still had bad experiences with these kinds of injuries. A freezing blue light appeared around his hands and his finger stopped bleeding in the brink of a second. There were no signs the fairy had made contact with him to begin with.

He remembered the times when he wished to be such a fairy. To just fly away from all the people annoying him.

Usually, Norway liked the silence, but this was one of the days he felt like talking to someone. The first one to come in mind were the Magic Trio Norway was part of. Romania? No, even though Norway wanted to talk, Romania was still a bit too talkative for him. England seemed like a good choice.

Still, it wasn't like he could just take a trip to London because he felt like having a chat. A phone call could get expensive, but it should be fine, as long as they didn't talk for a very long time.

The Nordic went down the stairs of the silent house, his footsteps echoing through the empty hallways until their sound faded away. The old phone had a thin layer of dust on it and made Norway remember that most of them only used their cellphones to call someone and how much the times had changed, involving everything around them. Still, Norway liked the house phone better. Carefully blowing the dust away, the nation started dialing England's number.

After several minutes he could hear someone picking up the phone at the other end and a "Hello?" in a British accent.

Norway cleared his throat, before asking: "England?"

The Nordic could hear the island nation's surprise as he answered: "Norway? It's unlikely for you to call…"

For a while, Norway didn't say anything. "Does that matter? Anyways, do you have a moment? I kind of need to talk to someone right now…"

"Sure. But what about the others?" the Brit asked a bit confusedly.

Norway looked towards the floor. "Ice is with Hong Kong…do you know him?"

"Hong Kong? He's been my colony for a while. What's he doing with Iceland?"

"Beats me. But I don't like it," Norway said in an annoyed voice.

The Nordic could feel a nostalgic tone in England's voice as he answered: "Ah, little brothers…I know how it feels, trust me. Except for that he isn't my brother anymore…"

Norway could practically feel the brit's expression darken. He still hadn't gotten over America's independence. It was a good thing for Norway that he and Iceland were actually related by blood, not like England who had just made the young America his little brother out of a mood.

"I could have figured he belonged to you," Norway said after a few minutes, trying to change the topic. "He's got your eyebrows."

"Yes, that was my magic," England, whose mood didn't seem to have brightened up, answered. "I thought that this way people would notice that he was my property…but that's all in the past now. Hong Kong was returned to China after almost a century. Everyone has left me…"

A quiet Norwegian curse reached England's ears. "I didn't want you to remember that," he said in the same quiet voice.

"No, it's alright I guess. By the way," the island nation added, "I tried calling you yesterday but only Denmark picked up. Where have you been?"

It took Norway a while to remember. "Oslo. My boss wanted to talk to me. What happened?"

"Oh, I just wanted to know whether you and Romania had time for another meeting. I discovered an interesting spell."

The Nordic thought about it for a while. He would be really busy the next few weeks and didn't know yet whether he would find the time to schedule a flight to London. "I'll think about it," he just answered. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

This time it was England who seemed to think. "I don't think so…or…wait! Is anything wrong with Denmark? Did you have a fight or something like that?"

Norway looked around a bit confusedly, not sure what England meant. "Anko? Not that I'm aware of…why?"

"He seemed…down. Yesterday, I mean. I don't know him really well but he never acted like this, as far as I can recall."

This really sounded strange. Did something happen while he was gone? It couldn't have been his fault, could it? After all, all he had done was visiting his capital.

Suddenly, Norway realized. Right. He hadn't done _anything_ besides visiting Oslo. He had forgotten something.

"Norway?" England asked after the Nordic had remained silent for a long time.

"That idiot…" Norway mumbled as Denmark's voice made its way inside his mind.

" _Hey, Nor? How about next time you visit your boss, you'll take me with you? So we'll get along better soon. Like in the old days, you know?"_

" _Shut it, Dane…why would I want that?"_

He remembered the big smile that had appeared on Denmark's face.

" _Oh come on. It's not like it would hold any disadvantages for you. Just for the sake of friendship? Pretty please?"_

" _Gosh…fine. Next time I go to Oslo, you can tag along, but for heaven's sake, at least try to be quiet."_

" _Sure thing! So, it's a promise, then?"_

" _It's a promise."_

"Jaevla*..." he muttered, grinding his teeth. "That bastard actually remembered it…"

"Norway?" England asked once more. "Is everything alright?"

The Nordic looked down. "It's just…something I remembered…I need to take care of that, so I'll hang up now."

He slammed the phone back on the base. Where had Denmark said he went to, again? And when would he come back? Norway knew that Denmark had been through a lot. This was one of the things he wished would never happen. He needed to talk to him as soon as possible.

 **Translation:** **Jaevla** **\- Damn**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, everyone!** **As always, thanks for the amazing reviews and your support in general. I never would have thought I would get this much praise to begin with, and I just want to thank you. I may put some of the other languages in the next chapters, like Danish or Finnish, but since I don't speak it, it will mostly be single words so I can trust Google Translate ^-^'**

It was already the next morning when Denmark finally returned to the house of the Nordics. He could see the four others sitting at the breakfast table through a window. Hong Kong was still with them. Denmark stopped. The Asian boy couldn't have…He reminded himself that this was ridiculous, quickly. Iceland was still too pure for any of this and Norway wouldn't have let Hong Kong stay in the same room as Iceland anyways. Maybe he had simply missed his flight for the way back to China.

He took out his keys, opened the front door and entered the dining room with a "Godmorgen*!" while trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

Heads turned as the Nordics realized that he had returned. Norway hid behind a big cup of coffee and Finland looked even worse than the day before. He probably didn't get any sleep at all. Sweden didn't look that good, either. He had either forgotten to clean his glasses the evening before or had soiled them again already. The glass was covered in stains of fingerprints, as if he had been rubbing his eyes a lot. The only one who looked about normal was Iceland, except for the young Asian sitting next to him. He really stood out from the rest with his brunette hair and dark brown eyes, since all of the Nordics had either blonde or whitish hair and either blue or purplish eyes.

"Hyvää huomenta*," Finland replied sleepily, taking a sip of his coffee.

"What's up with you guys? You look like you've been awake for a week or something." That he had barely slept in the last days didn't matter to him.

"Well, maybe we have," Norway answered, sounding exhausted. "Anyways, now that you're here, I need to talk to you for a moment." He stood up, dragging Denmark out of the room again, not stopping before they had reached another room where the others couldn't hear them.

An awkward silence was soon created between them.

"There's something I need to tell you…" Norway slowly started. A tune seemed to start playing somewhere. No, that had to be Denmark's imagination…Where would that tune come from anyway?

"But…I've remembered something yesterday and I wanted to talk about it with you as soon as possible…" The tune got louder and suddenly Denmark remembered what it was.

"Norway?" he asked, but Norway interrupted him.

"It's not like you think! I just wanted to tell you –"

"Norway," Denmark interrupted again. "Norway, your hairclip is ringing."

Norway stared at Denmark for a while confusedly, then laid a hand on his cross-shaped hairclip. He had almost forgotten that there was a cellphone implanted in it.

"Oh…" he said, and in Denmark's eyes it looked like he had blushed a little. "That's what you meant…" He slowly pulled the clip out of his whitish hair and pressed a button invisible for Denmark to answer.

"Hei*?" he listened to the caller for a while. "Excuse me for a moment…" then he turned around and started walking up and down the floor.

Denmark decided it was best to return to the others and have some breakfast while he still could. On his way back he could catch a few Norwegian words from Norway, like 'Akershus', 'møte*' 'forstått*' and at the end, as Denmark was already standing in the door frame again, he heard something that make him turn around. 'Danmark*'.

 **I'm so sorry that this is so short...I actually wanted to make the chapter longer, but my sister told me to stop it here because it was 'a good place to stop it'. I'll try to write more in the next chapter to balance it out though.**

 **Translations:**

 **Godmorgen** **(Danish)/** **hyvää huomenta** **(Finnish) – Good morning**

 **Hei** **– Hello**

 **Møte –** **meeting**

 **Forstått –** **understood**

 **Danmark –** **(that should be obvious) Denmark**


	6. Chapter 6

**Waahh, I'm sorry for not updating for this long! _ we had our performance with the Drama Club and I'm quite literally stuck with Homestuck.**

Hong Kong took another slice of bread, as the blond one – Denmark, was it? – entered again. The white haired one was nowhere to be seen. Hong Kong really wondered what they had been talking about, but didn't dare to ask.

Only a few minutes later however, the other Nordic also stepped into the room again.

He took a seat and for a while, the room remained silent.

"Anko?" Norway finally asked, breaking the silence. "Are you free today?"

Denmark looked at him a bit confusedly. "Huh? Why do you ask?"

Norway averted his gaze. "You asked me to take you with me to my next meeting with my boss, didn't you?"

Hong Kong looked up, interested. Maybe now he would find out what their conversation had been about.

"But I thought that was the day before yesterday…" Denmark answered.

"Yes…I didn't remember, so I left you here. But there's something my boss forgot to talk to me about. He wants to meet me again today. I asked if you could come too, and he was okay with it…" You could tell that Norway was uncomfortable with saying this in front of all the other Nordics and the Asian city. "So…are you still interested?"

"Uhm…sure…" he said slowly. Hong Kong could tell that Denmark was clearly surprised by what Norway said. And that it made him feel better for some reason.

Finland looked up from his coffee. "Huh? Why are you going to meet his boss with him?"

Norway looked away again. "It was his idea. To get a better relationship."

"Söpö," Finland smiled silently. "We're all like a family anyways. We should all get along."

It seemed like Norway didn't like to hear something involving him and Denmark being called 'cute' in Finnish.

"Say…wouldn't it be possible to do that too?" Finland asked quietly. "For all of us to go there, so we can all get a good relationship with each other and help each other out?"

The room remained silent for a while.

"Is that really necessary?" Iceland asked. "I mean, we spend enough time together already…"

"I think you should do it," Hong Kong said turning his head to Iceland who had a confused look on his face.

"You don't really want a torn family. Seriously, I know how that feels. Not only that we have been separated for almost centuries. And one of us doesn't even talk to his own brother anymore." North Korea came to his mind.

"He's right," Sweden said. "I wouldn't want that."

"So…would it be okay for us to come too?" Finland asked once more and Norway started thinking.

"It should be," he finally answered. "We'll find out once we're there."

Iceland and Denmark were the only ones who remained silent. "What about Hong Kong?" Iceland asked. "We can't just leave him here."

"You're right…" Finland admitted, then he turned to Hong Kong. "What are you going to do?"

The Asian boy was silent for a while, then he stood up. "I'll probably just go back home."

Iceland stood up as well. "I guess I can bring you to the airport, then." He turned to the other Nordics. "I'll catch up with you."

"Ice!" Norway shouted reproachful, but Denmark stopped him. "Just let him go. He's 200 years old, after all."

"Thank you," Iceland said, annoyed by Norway and his overprotectiveness once again. "Finally someone who understands. Just tell me where the meeting is and I'll find you."

"Akershus," Norway said slowly. "It's –"

"I can find it on my own just fine! I'm not a little kid anymore; I know how to read a map."

He turned towards Hong Kong. "Are you coming?"

"Sure."

"Akershus, right? I'll find you." Then, he and Hong Kong were gone.

"Over here," Iceland said and motioned to a little garage with a moped in it. It certainly made sense since Iceland physically couldn't be older than 17. And it wasn't like he could just explain that he was actually the personification of Iceland so he could get a car driving license.

Hong Kong sat behind the Nordic when suddenly something came to his mind. "Why didn't you want to go to the meeting with the others?"

Iceland sighed. "We already spend enough time together if you ask me. They can be really obnoxious, you know? Especially Dan and Nore. Dan's always starting fights with Svi or Nore. There was this one time when Nore almost strangled him with his own necktie…As for Nore…he found out that we're brothers lately and now I can't even be in the same room as him without him trying to get me to calling him 'big brother'."

Hong Kong smiled silently. "It doesn't sound that bad to me. It doesn't look like your fights are that bad, actually. You still look like you're getting along pretty well. At least you're family still looks like one…"

He took one of the helmets Iceland was holding. "What do you mean?" the Nordic asked.

"Me and Macao have been separated from China for a long time. When I was finally allowed to return I had to realize that it was hard for me to connect to Asian culture again…I'm not even a country. Japan used to see me as nothing but an obstacle he needed to get rid of during war times. There are a few problems with Taiwan and of course the thing with the Korea siblings."

He was silent for a moment while Iceland averted his gaze. "But whatever," he said with his usual neutral expression. "Let's go."

He put on the helmet and both of them lifted their feet off the ground as Iceland started the engine.

The cool wind felt good and Hong Kong almost immediately forgot almost everything. All that mattered to him was the feeling of the leather seat underneath him and Iceland's brown coat flying in the wind, showing the white shirt underneath it in front of him. There were almost no traffic lights so they never really had to stop. The Asian actually wanted to talk more with Iceland. About their families, their daily lives…anything would do. But the wind was too loud for Iceland to understand anything Hong Kong would say, so he remained silent.

Time seemed to pass by as quickly as the buildings around them. What time was it anyways? The last time Hong Kong had checked his watch it was about 12 am…and if he remembered correctly there was a time difference of 8 hours from Iceland's to his place. So it was already evening at his home. The flight back would also take several hours, so he would most likely return in the middle of the night. He already stayed one day too long…China would give him a good scolding as soon as he returned. Sometimes Hong Kong didn't understand him. If the old man was really this worried about him, then why didn't he just send him a message? 4000 years should be enough time to learn how to use a cellphone after all, shouldn't it? Or was he stuck in the past this much that a simple task like that was already too complicated and modern?

Time went by and way too soon – for Hong Kong at least – they realized the big building hosting the airport. The silence was smashing when Iceland turned the engine off.

After a while, Hong Kong stood up from the moped and started walking towards the doors when he heard that the Nordic was following him.

"I'll accompany you for a little while," he explained, avoiding the Asian's gaze. "Until you know when your flight is."

Hong Kong nodded, his usual mysterious smile in his face.

As expected for an airport, the waiting hall was packed with people and Hong Kong's hand reached for the sleeve of Iceland's sweater, causing the Nordic to blush immediately.

"It wouldn't make sense for you to accompany me if we were to lose track of each other."

Iceland just continued staring at the floor, letting out a quiet. "Fine", but lifted his head to look at the big monitor with all the flights on it.

"Fuck," he said quietly and Hong Kong gave him a questioning look, before turning his gaze to the monitor as well, where a note at the bottom caught his eye.

 _The flight to Hong Kong, China, for 2 pm is canceled due to poor weather conditions. The next…_

He didn't need to read any further. It looked like he was stuck here for yet another day. _Good luck dealing with China…_ he thought to himself quietly.

His and Iceland's gaze met and they could tell that they both were thinking the same thing:

 _What now?_

Right in this moment, Iceland's cellphone whistled, pointing out that he had just received a message.

"Probably Norway," the Nordic said after a few seconds. "I guess I should go to this meeting anytime soon…" the two went silent until Iceland seemed to have come up with an idea.

"Just come with me. One more of us won't do much difference."

Hong Kong just nodded as Iceland reached for his phone to check the message, but its content let his face whiten in an instant.

"What is it…?" Hong Kong asked and Iceland turned the phone around.

 _Broren min*. Forget about the meeting. We'll come as soon as possible, wait at home for us. Don't worry. Everything's fine. Jeg elsker deg*_ _._

"This isn't like him…" he quietly said. "Something must have happened. I need to go check on them!"

"But didn't he tell you to wait for them and that everything was okay?" Hong Kong asked and Iceland shook his head.

"That's such a clichéd line. It just means he wants me to stay out of something because he thinks I couldn't handle the situation. But I'll show him how wrong he is!"

He started walking towards the exit, then turned around again. "Ertu að koma*?"

Hong Kong could figure out on his own what it meant. He smiled silently then followed the Nordic out of the waiting hall.

 **Norwegian:**

 **Broren min – my brother**

 **Jeg elsker deg – I love you**

 **Icelandic:**

 **Ertu að koma? – Are you coming?**


	7. Chapter 7

The way to the meeting place took way longer of course, and they had to stop two times to ask for directions.

Hong Kong didn't quite understand why he hadn't just let Norway give him a description of the route.

During their second stop Iceland held on to text Norway where exactly the meeting was.

He didn't wait until he answered and just drove on.

At the next traffic light he checked his phone again.

"Nothing", he said in an annoyed voice. "My messages won't even send. I really wonder where he is. It looks like his phone is out of range. I don't know if I can reach the others. Looks like we'll have to ask for them once we're there."

About half an hour later had not only made it to the city, but had also learned that four men with a description fitting the Nordics had been seen driving in the direction of the old ruins of a church that used to stand in the Eastern part of the city.

"But what would they be doing in some church ruins?" Iceland asked himself quietly.

"Maybe they had to drive past it to get to the meeting place?" Hong Kong proposed and Iceland nodded slowly.

"Well, we'll find out once we're there."

The young Nordic could already see the ruins and a sign. He stopped to see what was on it, then just shook his head.

"What does it say?" Hong Kong, who couldn't understand Norwegian in the slightest, asked.

"In a nutshell," Iceland answered, "it warns you about spiritual activity in and around the ruins I guess. That's so Norway."

Hong Kong remained silent. "Do you think this is why we can't reach them on their phones?" he finally asked, causing Iceland to snort.

"Of course not! There aren't any ghosts! Stuff like that doesn't exist. Norway just pretends to be talking to those trolls, I bet. And even if they were real, they'd be with him and not going against him here."

The Asian nodded, but didn't seem very convinced.

"Come on." Iceland motioned for him to sit on the moped again. "I'm sure they just passed through here."

The motor of the moped was started again and they drove on…until it stopped again a few meters away.

Iceland noticed Hong Kong's questioning look. "The motor's acting up. I'll try to fix it, but it will take a while."

After the questioning look came his mysterious smile again. "Do you think the ghosts have something to do with this?"

The Nordic averted his gaze. "There are no ghosts, how many times do I have to repeat that! It's just an old machine…I guess, and it needs maintenance."

"I think," Hong Kong said in his usual voice, looking at the ruins, "that ghosts are very real."

"Oh really?" the Nordic answered in a bit of an annoyed voice while he was checking the motor. "And why?"

"I belonged to England, remember? He's like your brother, with all the magic and stuff. And I got to watch him practicing it, too. Those things he and Norway talk to are real, and so are those 'haunted' places and curses. Do you see those?" he motioned at his eyebrows which were thicker than usual ones. "That's a curse. England did it and it can't be reversed. So I think if they actually put up a sign – and especially because your brother seems to be into magic and all of this too – it should be taken seriously."

"Whatever," Iceland said as he stood up and rubbed the dirt off his hands. "Fact is that I can't seem to get this thing to work again. Just wonderful." His gaze wandered to the Asian who was looking at the ground.

"What now?"

Hong Kong motioned to something on the ground. "There are traces of a car. Do think it could be the others?"

Iceland followed his hand and noticed the broad traces of tires on the ground. "They look like they're not that old either. I guess it won't hurt to follow them."

He heard Hong Kong following him quietly. Somehow, the Asian seemed to think that their situation was far more tense than Iceland thought of it.

Still, he wasn't a fan of searching for the others in the whole city. It probably was better to listen to Hong Kong's advices, even though he still didn't really believe the whole ghost thing.

"I can see it!" Iceland shouted, as he suddenly saw Denmark's car in the ruins.

He was relieved to have found it – the searching would come to an end.

"Nore!" he shouted as he ran towards the car, waving. But he got no response. The car was now only a few meters away from him.

Still nothing.

He peeked through the windows, only to realize that the car was empty.


	8. Chapter 8

\- two hours previously -

Finland watched the scenery pass by the window of Denmark's car. He still couldn't really believe it. This was too good to be true…All of them, heading to a meeting, together, like a real family.

But still, something else was occupying his thoughts. Estonia's words had sunk deeply into his mind, causing a major confusion in his head. Did he really mean this much to Sweden? Sure, the tall Nordic could be frightening, but for some reason, it didn't affect Finland as much as before. Now, he even felt more at ease with the Swede around.

Maybe he should talk to him about it when he got the chance. Maybe after the meeting. Maybe if he could bring up the courage to bring up the topic.

Maybe.

But there was no way he could talk about it now. Not with Norway and Denmark in the car together with them. If it turned out that all had been a misunderstanding, then Finland would be stuck with Sweden for the rest of the day and it would be the living hell.

For now, he didn't want to say anything. He was just fine with watching Sweden.

As the landscape outside of the car changed, Finland found himself wondering how the meeting would actually work. It had been so last-minute and he had no clue what it would be about, besides their cooperation as the Nordic family.

He started to worry if Iceland would make it in time. He, out of all the Nordics, needed to attend this meeting the most. How far was the airport even away from their current location?

Finland shook his head quietly and thought to himself: "Relax, Suomi. There's no point in worrying. It'll all work out somehow. Really, no wonder Sweden calls you 'his wife'. You're like an overprotective mother!"

They drove past a sign and Finland felt once again like some kind of alien in the family, with a language so different from theirs. He had no idea what had been written on the sign, but apparently Denmark sorted it out, because he turned a little towards Norway and asked:

"Um, Norge? Are you…sure this is the right way?"

Norway, sitting on the passenger seat with a map on his lap, calmly replied: "Of course, don't freak out because of this little sign. I drive past here all the time. The sign is to scare normal people off, because the spirits – and there's more than just one – don't like strangers, but they're familiar with me, so everything's fine."

It looked like it had been better if Norway hadn't mentioned the spirits, because now Denmark gripped the steering wheel tighter and drove extra carefully and even Finland felt his heartbeat quicken, even by just a little. This was silly, he told himself. Norway knew what he was talking about, especially when it came to supernatural things.

But right in this moment, as if to prove him wrong, the car made a strange noise and stopped moving.

Denmark tried turning the engine on again and again, but the car had gotten silent, not moving a single inch.

"Norge?" Denmark asked again.

"This is weird," Norway answered, still keeping his expressionless face. "Not just the thing with the car, but I can't seem to find the spirits anywhere."

He exited the car. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I just need to look after something." Before anyone could react, he was gone.

Finland shifted in his seat uncomfortably. Something had happened – something Norway didn't want to tell them. Now he had all right to be worried. But he was not the only one who had a bad feeling as he saw how Denmark closed the door Norway had exited through and locked all doors, while Sweden closed his window.

"There's probably nothing for us to worry about but…" he started and Sweden finished: "Just m'king sure."

Time went by horribly slowly, for they had all pretty much stood up from the breakfast table right into the car and nobody had brought anything with them except for maybe their cell phone.

When Finland checked his, the battery acted weird and died soon afterwards.

"Do you think he's okay on his own?" he asked after fifteen minutes – though they had felt like two hours.

He heard Denmark taking a deep breath. "I'll go look for him. He can't have wandered off too far. I should be able to catch up with him."

With those words, he stood up as well and unlocked the car and handed Finland the key.

"If you decide to go as well, just remember to lock the doors again. We'll meet again in one hour, okay?"

Finland nodded silently, then he watched the Dane disappear in the ruins.

He tried to calm down as best as he could, leaned back against his seat and closed his eyes. Maybe he could at least recover some of the sleep he had lost. He just had to wait and considering how tired he had felt this morning, it shouldn't take long until he fell asleep.

But he soon realized that this was neither the place nor the time to sleep. Of course. It should have been clear to him from the beginning. For now, he should focus on helping Sweden out.

He couldn't take this anymore. If they didn't show up again in ten minutes, he would go search for the two of them as well. It should be fine as long as he was back in one hour. Maybe Sweden would even accompany him.

 **I know I'm saying this after every chapter, but I am fucking sorry for not updating sooner. Was in America for three weeks without my laptop so… XP I'll really try not to take this long with the updates, I promise.**


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